Being an account of one yarnthirsty wench and her never ending quest for the land of milk, honey and natural fibers!

Sunday, August 03, 2008

Of course there is fiber in Northern California!

It was not all beaches, trees and good eats. Oh no. I was a good knitter, too!

I finished my Charade socks:

I am so pleased with how they came out, the yarn and the colorway and the pattern are really a perfect mix. They remind me of men's suit socks except those waves of green, turquoise and fuschia/purple subtly spiraling through make them very unsuitlike. It's good I finished them. For all that we had the blue skies, it never made it above 70ish and my feet were cold all the time. I ran out of hand knit socks on the day I cast these off. Talk about timing! Go me!

While I didn't find any stores that had the kind of wide and eclectic selection that you might find at A Mano or at Wildfiber, I did find a few yarn shops on the North Coast. One of them was particularly excellent.

Boll Weaver in Henderson Center was a fantastic fiber resource. The owner was knowledgeable, the store was well stocked with a wide selection of what I like to think of as basic foundation yarns for knitting and weaving, there were plenty of spinning fibers (including locks from local sheep!) and the largest selection of Chasing Rainbows Dyeworks (semi local dyer/spinner in Willits, CA) I have ever seen, hands down. Yarns and spinning fibers, all in a myriad of weights and colorways from that artist, who is one of my favorites. The shop also carries a nice array of Ashford wheels and some spindles.

Shipwreck in Old Town Eureka (on Third between F and E) had a small selection of commercial yarn. What rocked my socks was the small but respectable array of local handspun yarns in different fibers. Also a fantastic collection of handsewn bags, aprons, dresses, and vintage treasures. I was enchanted. And the owner sells on Etsy! If you want whimsy? Go here. Their prices are insanely good for what they're offering.

Foggy Bottoms Yarn in Ferndale CA (on Main St.) was a yarn store I was really excited to visit. I have to admit I was a little bit disappointed overall. The store was very dark, had a really horrible pervasive mildew smell upon walking in and those two factors didn't make me want to buy a lot of yarn. They did have a large selection of Mountain Colors yarns and an impressive wall o' Noro. A skein of Bearfoot did make it home with me from this shop, as my goal was to spread my tourist dollars to as many LYS as I could, while traveling.

Not bad, if I do say so myself.

I did not make it to either Fabric Temptations in Arcata or Generations Yarn in Fortuna and I'd hoped to. Next time for sure. I hear that the former is quite spiffy.

Anytime you can combine vacation with yarn shopping, I really think you should.

Time to go back to Ferndale. Foggy Bottoms has moved to a great spot at the other end of town. It's brighter, warmer and no "pervasive mildew smell". Jacquie (the owner) says she's been looking for a new location for years. She says that this new location was a yarn shop when she first came to town (back in 1987) but it had been turned into a clothing store years ago. They moved the clothes across the street and Jacquie jumped at the chance to see the store full of yarn again.